English speakers tend to mistakenly correct themselves by saying “I am well” instead of “I am good” because they recognize that “am” is a verb, a form of “to be.” And since it’s a verb, people often figure, you pair it with an adverb (like well), not an adjective (like good). But what these folks are forgetting is that the verb “to be” is a linking verb. Yes, if your main verb is an action verb (such as “to run” or “to see”), then you need to use an adverb, rather than an adjective, to modify it (“I run well.” “He sees poorly.”). But with a linking verb, you are describing your state—good, bad, purple, in a hurry, whatever. The same applies to verbs like “to seem” and “to appear,” and in certain cases to sensing verbs, like “to smell” (“You smell good.” vs. “You smell well.”) and “to feel.” (If you “feel badly,” then you are bad at feeling, but if you “feel bad” then you are describing your state as bad.)
As Mignon Fogarty notes in her entry on “Good Versus Well,” saying “I am good” is actually preferable to saying “I am well” unless you’re speaking specifically about your health. But hopefully, if you are telling people that you are “well,” good health is at least part of what you’re trying to convey.
2. Splitting infinitives: This is a “rule” that you’ll hear about from people from time to time, but that you won’t find in modern style guides. Self-declared grammar sticklers have been tut-tutting split infinitives for decades; in at least one case, it was allegedly discussed in treaty negotiations. But while some English grammarians, notably Henry Alford in his 1864 book The Queen’s English, have argued against splitting infinitives, it is not a rule. In fact, sometimes avoiding a split infinitive is downright awkward. So grammar aficionados need not tear out their hair over the Enterprise’s mission “to boldly go where no man/one has gone before.”Read more
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